Shopping 4 new case, suggestions?

Budget with shipping: 190 ( I'm in the USA West side )
What's important for the case to have from 1 being the most and a greater number being less important...

1. Fan Filters. ( I almost always have a incense lit in the room. )
2. Long Lasting. ( I don't want to have to replace this case in 3 to 5 years. )
3. Lots Of Fans. ( It gets rather hot where I live so cooling is important. )
3. Lots of room. ( I have a large HD6950 video card and a power supply that's not modular with lots of wires. )
4. I'd prefer the color black but black with white, red or dark blue is fine.

So if any of you have any suggestions, links or what have you, I'd much much appreciate it.

Big steel case, can be rigged as ATX or BTX (inverted ATX) with swappable side panels, PSU can go front or rear or redundant, lots of fans with room for more. Only issue is that only the bottom fans are filtered, however the other fan ports are built in such a clean manner that adding internal or external filters would be simple.

Also check out the Rosewill Thor V2. Not quite as massive, but still a solid chunk of steel with lots of ventilation. Perhaps a little harder to filter.

Big steel case, can be rigged as ATX or BTX (inverted ATX) with swappable side panels, PSU can go front or rear or redundant, lots of fans with room for more. Only issue is that only the bottom fans are filtered, however the other fan ports are built in such a clean manner that adding internal or external filters would be simple.

Also check out the Rosewill Thor V2. Not quite as massive, but still a solid chunk of steel with lots of ventilation. Perhaps a little harder to filter.

Cool thanks, I will take a look at those cases, yeah the filters not being there would be an issue but I'll see if it'd be easy to add filters to that case.

Big steel case, can be rigged as ATX or BTX (inverted ATX) with swappable side panels, PSU can go front or rear or redundant, lots of fans with room for more. Only issue is that only the bottom fans are filtered, however the other fan ports are built in such a clean manner that adding internal or external filters would be simple.

Also check out the Rosewill Thor V2. Not quite as massive, but still a solid chunk of steel with lots of ventilation. Perhaps a little harder to filter.

Yeah I like that Azza case, though I don't like that it does not come with the 230mm side fan, nor does it have a filter for it, the top fans wouldn't need filters because their venting but if I got that case, I'd want to get a 230mm fan for the side and I just looked, there are no dust filters for a 230 fan, so I'd have to make my own, that case is right up at my price limit and I'd have to probably end up spending another $40 on it to get it ready, so that has me a bit iffy on it.

That Azza case is on my wish list. I built a system based on one a couple months ago, and it is just awesome, so much airflow. I rigged it with 2 120mm intakes on both sides, as well as a 230mm intake, all bound in black nylon stockings. They aren't removable, but it is easy to just sweep them with the vacuum, and they catch LOTS of dust.

There are lots of 120mm fan filters that can be placed on the outside that are easily removable and cleanable, but they just aren't as good at dust filtering. The 230mm is harder to find (you'll spend $50 for a good one) so again the stocking turned out to be the best option. With all that intake, the airflow came out the top and front freely.

My biggest complaint is that so many cases now that come with lots of filters are those terrible cheap split-foam filters, just terrible at handling small dust particles. Positive airflow (more in than out) helps keep dust from settling by preventing idle air, but filtering is just a needed factor. I'm still hanging on to an AeroCool Masstige case, which is a GREAT case for setting up positive airflow, but I live in the midwest US, meaning lots of wind, lots of dust (the heavy sediment that doesn't blow through), and dirty PCs.

You can call in and have them correct your order. Pretty easy. I had a legacy memory module that was going from $39.99 to $89.99 in the cart. Called in, got it for the lower price, and got free shipping for my trouble. Newegg is good people.

Well, I just looked again and now its showing the $9.99 Shipping price, so I guess they were messing with it they other day or trying to catch people off guard and get a extra few bucks out of some people.

Great, could you try and see how much space there is behind the motherboard plate for cable management, I've seen someone bring it up once but they didn't go into detail, that's the only thing I'm currently worried about the Azza Genesis 9000 case.

and I actually did take a look at that top 20 list before I made this thread, just thought there might of been a newer case sense you put out that list that might be worth looking at, that someone could tell me about but thanks for the info Rodney, I look forward to your review on the case!

Oh on a side note, I am probably going to get a new power supply, my current power supply is non modular with lots of cords and I can't help but create a rat's nest with them

so my side question is, whith the Azza 9000 in mind, and only a single 6950 GPU one dvd/cd burner 8gb ddr3, two hardrives and I think that's it, what wattage should I be looking for and could any one maybe suggest a few PSU's sadly I won't have a lot of money after I get the case so it'll either be a while before a PSU or it'll have to be on the cheap side, plus I plan to get what fans the Azza 900 does not include.

The AZZA 9000 has around 2.5 cm or 1 inch of space behind the mobo tray. Plenty of space to organize to your hearts content. Wait for Rodney's review, because he'll detail it nicely for you (he always does!).

As far as PSUs go, you're safe within the 500-600W range. I'm a big fan of OCZ and Corsair PSUs, but there is a lot out there that is good; READ REVIEWS, or at least look at the overall ratings. The following is a listing of partially modular or fully modular PSUs from Newegg, 500-600W, all with active power factor correction (big feature I urge everyone to look for, makes stuff last longer):

eire1274 wrote:The AZZA 9000 has around 2.5 cm or 1 inch of space behind the mobo tray. Plenty of space to organize to your hearts content. Wait for Rodney's review, because he'll detail it nicely for you (he always does!).

As far as PSUs go, you're safe within the 500-600W range. I'm a big fan of OCZ and Corsair PSUs, but there is a lot out there that is good; READ REVIEWS, or at least look at the overall ratings. The following is a listing of partially modular or fully modular PSUs from Newegg, 500-600W, all with active power factor correction (big feature I urge everyone to look for, makes stuff last longer):

One thing I for got to say though, I feel that in the future I may decide to get a second video card and try crossfire or SLI, would I wanna still stay in the 500 to 600 range or should I bump that up 100, in the future I may also jump to 16gb of ram as well.

eire1274 wrote:550W to 600W will still handle two cards. Look for proper cabling from the PSU, though. A single card you could actually get away with around 400-450W. I plan for a buffer.

EDIT: 550W to 600W will handle two MIDRANGE CARDS. Don't expect things to necessarily work out of you grab a couple HD 7970s or 6970s, and that will push us into the 800W and up range.

Well yeah, what I was trying to say, was that that could very well be the case in the future, if I got two video cards and did corssfire or sli, I'd probably get two of one of the top current ranking cards at the time.

but you really can't get 800W + PSU's for cheap and still be safe huh? With the PSU I'd like to stay under $120

Well I might wait and see if I get lucky with the current give away heh but if not yeah, $120 would be my budget on a new PSU, honestly I don't wanna spend more then $100 but I understand that PSU's are not something you wanna go cheap on heh.

That active PFC is what will drive the price up. Anything else is a gamble... sometimes no issues, and sometimes one blip and $800 worth of video cards along with everything else goes up in smoke. The power supply is something I don't mess around with!

eire1274 wrote:That active PFC is what will drive the price up. Anything else is a gamble... sometimes no issues, and sometimes one blip and $800 worth of video cards along with everything else goes up in smoke. The power supply is something I don't mess around with!

I've learned my lesson the hard way!

Ah, so do you think its possible to get that 800w + psu with the PFC under 120 or am I looking at PSU's with PFC at a much higher price tag if I want that PFC?

Cougar I've never worked with, but XFX is decent (client wanted PSU and video cards to match brand, so I did). Coolmax I've used on servers, pretty solid PSUs, but I've never worked with their desktop line. Not many reviews, but a decent response on the few, so might not be bad.

In the three you just listed, my choice is the XFX and that is because i don't know much about "cougar" and the coolmax is Bronze certified vs the silver rating of the XFX...

The cougar have 4 x 12 v rail (not the best for me as you need to calculate the load on each line to ensure proper operation) opposed to the 2 others that have a single 12V rail so no hassle, just plug it in...

In my opinion the XFX is the better of the 3 as it has 4 6+2 PCI-E connector over 2 x 6 and 2 x 6+2 for the coolmax that is rated at a higher wattage (so i think it is rated peak over the XFX that is certified for continuous current on their website)

The XFX also comes with a 5 years warranty over the 2 other that are "only" 3 years...

PS: you really want better efficiency on a psu cause it will run cooler as it don't waste energy in heat and be more "green" and save you some bucks in your electricity bill if your PC is always on like mine... And that's good that you are informed about "cheap" unit that can kill your 2000$ PC within 1 seconds, i had learned the hard way too !!!

Yeah, I've had a XFX video card in the past and it burnt out, thankfully it didn't take anything with it, I've also had a PSU die on me but it too didn't take anything with it,

so I've been rather lucky when it comes to parts dieing on me, the XFX does seem like the better choice out of the three but as I said, the last product I got from them, died on me, early I'd have to say heh so I'm a little iffy on them but I still might get the XFX unless someone can point out a better one for the same price, or I can find a better one myself,

Still, the 5th is when I'll get the case and I'll get the PSU down the load, sadly I have to go with getting the parts bit by bit over time and not all at once which in my opinion is the better way to go when shopping for parts.

Anyways, again, thanks for the help guys!

Edit: I didn't really wanna spend this much but I think I'll end up getting this PSU when I have the money...

Antec are really build strong. I have a 500w neohe from my P4 478pin build and it's still running my file server in my basement with a pentium dual-core Overclock @ 3.6ghz and a HD5770 overclocked too and it's running 24/7 from 2005-2006 to now

Also they're rated for continuous output so for 10 bucks, go with the antec, i'm sure you'll never have problem with them...

i can also recommend the Cooler master silent pro as i run a silent pro gold and it still running strong from 2008 to now, comes with all needed cable and the 5 years warranty... They have great rebates sometimes as the 850w model is 140$ and i had buy my Gold 1000w for 160$ with rebate and if my memory is right, the 850 was 110$ at this time...

the silent pro m1000 (not gold) is selling at 160$ and can deliver 1354 watts peak (1200w in cooler master specs) tested by my cousin with a carbon battery and a clamp to measure the current that are travelling trought the cable. My cousin run this one with 3 way SLI 570 and i7 980x OC no problem for years...

The 850w is rated 1020w peak so maybe 1100w and that's a little overkill also, it is single 12V rail (66A) over the multiple 12V rails of the Antec (70A combined max) They bot have the same connectivity except 2 4+4 for the CM over 1 8pin+1 4+4 CPU connector for the Antec (however i don't think we should really care as we're not thinking about multiple processor motherboard)

Now I'm torn between getting the Azza 900 and getting a new cpu with another four cores for faster rendering in blender (3D modeling program)ug, it'll have to just be next on the list, heh, I wish I was making the kind of money that'd allow me to blow a good 4 or 500 at once.

But here's a question, an 8 core cpu, if you have programs that will use 100% of its core, is a stock cpu heatsink good enough to keep it cool, I mean how hot does 8 cores get, should I be considering getting a after market heatsink, I mean I've won one from Rodney's giveaways, though I was nice and gave it to a friend that needed it, so all I got is what CPU's come with when and if I buy one and I do plan to buy a 8 core cpu.

Yeah, I think I'll be getting the Azza 9000 now, then the 8 core cpu and then a new power supply, I'll just have to get better at cable management some how, figured the case will be the start of my new build and I'll go from there, not sure if I can call it a new build, sense at the end I'll still be using my motherboard, video card and ram, every thing else I'm replacing/upgrading, non the less, its always fun to work on a pc build, new or not.

Though I've entertained the thought of switching over to intel sense they have a better rep when it comes to 3D model rending programs, meh I don't know, something I'll have to consider in the future, that is if the world does not end next month hahaha.